Hopper door



July 21 1925. v

N. c. THALHEIMER HUPPER DOOR Filed April 25, 1921 I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 aT/lamelhler llllllllllll \ll l-llll ww' July 21 1925.

N, C. THALHEIMEH HOPPER DOOR Filed April 25, 1921 3 Sheets-Sheei 2 July 21 1925. 1,546,952

N. c. THALHEIMER HOPPER DOOR Filed April' 25, 1921 s SheetsE-Shegt 5 Aizorne zz Patented July 21, 19251.

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* 1,546,952 PATENT OFFICE.

NICHOLAS C. THALI-IEIMER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO WALTER 1?; MURPHY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

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. Application filed April 25, 1921. Serial No. 464,315.

To (ZZZ whom it may concern: Be it known that I, llronoLAs C. Trian- I-IEIMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cool: and State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements inHopper Doors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in hopper doors for dumping cars and more particularly to the manner of" mounting or hinging the door upon the car body.

Railroad cars for the transportation of coal, coke and ore are usually constructed entirely of metal, open at the top, and provided with hoppers on the under side for the discharge of the lading, and it is an object of this invention to provide a means for mounting the hopper doors upon such cars in such a manner that the hinge connection between the door and the car body will be of simple construction, the hinge member of the door formed integral therewith and the hinge member on the car body will form an additional strengthening memberto the discharge end of the slope sheet of the hop per and to form the hinge to provide a complete closure throughout the entire top of the door in order that should the bottom of the slope sheet become corroded by the action of the elements and character of the lading there will be no opening uncovered between the hopper door and theslope sheet through which the lading may sift while in transit.

. While the preferred form of this inven tion is illustrated upon the accompanying sheets of drawing, yet minor detail changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof.

Fig. 1 is a view inside elevation of an all metal hopper car illustrating the hopper doors in closed position and mounted thereon in the manner contemplated by this invention, parts being broken away, and illustrating one of the doors in section.

Fig. 2 is a View in transverse section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, with parts broken away.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail view in section illustrating the attachment of this'improved hinge to the-slope sheet.

Figs. 4 and 5 are similar views illustrating difierentforms of the same attachment.

The embodiment ofthis invention is illustrated upon the drawings as being applied mechanism. the hopper doors from steel plates in which to an all metal hopper car in which the numeral 1 represents the car side, 2 the side walls oi the hopper,,3 the slope sheet ex tending from the car end, 4c the slope sheets extending from the center of the car, 5 the center sills and 6 the side sills, all of which are of usual construction.

In this type of ear the hopper doors 7 are arranged in pairs transversely of the car on opposite sides of the center sills and are hinged at their upper ends to the under side of the center slope sheets lflwith a connecting member 8 extending across and joining the lower ends of the hopper doors so that they will be opened and closed in unison upon the actuation of the door operating It is preferable to construct parallel corrugations QeXtending in the direction of the discharge of the lading are pressed therein, which corrugations terminate within the body of the door proper and the side and lower edges of the door are preferably provided with acontinuous upstanding flange 10 adapted to embrace the outer surfaces of the hopper side walls and lower slope sheet.

Each door is mounted to swing from the under side of the central slope sheet by. attaching theretoa U-shaped member 11 preferably pressed from a steel plate having an outstanding flange 12 along its upper side wall adapted to be riveted to the slope sheet and an outwardly curved flange 18 from the lower side Wall, which side wall is of less height, allowing a space between the slope sheet and the flange for the operation therebetween of the door hinge member. The ll-shaped member, which may be called the car body hinge member, extends completely. across the lower edge of the central slope sheet 4: and each inner end of the car body hinge members for each door is provided with a bracket 14: comprising a base plate secured to the adjacent center sill having. an upstanding flange following the contour of the exterior of the car body hinge member supporting this member at the inner end, .and the outer end of each car body hinge member is provided with a bracket 15 having a similar supporting flange and a base plate adapted to be secured to the under side of each side sill 6.

Each hopper door is provided With a hinge member 16 extending continuously across its upper edge and is formed by first bending the upper edge of the door to lie parallel with the under side or the adjacent slope sheet, then curving the upper edge to conform with the curved flange 13 of the car body hinge member and then extending therebeyond to lie in contact with the side wall 01 the curved flange when the door is closed, as illustrated. The edge or" this portion of the door is terminated in a continuousupstanding flange 17. It is, therefore, readily seen that the door is provided with a continuous hinge member which extends across the entire top or the door coacting with the continuous car body hinge member extending across the entire door opening which from its formation supports the entire upper edge of the door in closed position and allows of the rotation of the door thereupon tor the discharge of the lading, the upstanding extremity 17 of the door body will engage the under side of the slope sheet 4: to prevent excessive rotation and the detachment of the hinge members, as shown in dotted lines in Figs. 3 to 5. H

The car body hinge members are secured "a suflicient distance above the lower edge of the slope sheet so that the slope sheet extends beyond the curved flange l3 and lies over the upper portion otthc door body so that the eating away of the lower edge of the slope sheet by corrosion will not provide any openings through which the lading may. sift. If desired, the car body hinge members may be reinforced by pressing of bosses 18 in the side walls thereof which extend alternately from the outstanding flange l2 tapering into the bottom of the npper side wall and from the bottom of said side wall tapering into the said outstanding flange and on the lower side wall bosses tapering to the curved hangs from the bottom of the side wall. It is also preterable to connect the opposite car body hinge members for additional support and rigidity by a plurality of braces 19 which are preferably in the form of channels having a central corrugation extending longitudinally of the web, as shown in 2.

Fig. 8 illustrates one means of securing the braces 19 to the car body hinge member in which the'flanges and corrugations oi" the braces are cut away to conform to the bottom of the car body hinge member with the web extended in contact withthe lower side wall and riveted thereto. F 4 illustrates a form in which the channel is inverted and the web is secured directly to the bottom of the car body hinge member.

Fig. 5 illustrates a form somewhat similar to that shown in Fig. 4 in which the curved flange 13 is continued parallel to its side wall and the web of the brace 19 after being nae 5,952

riveted to the bottom of the car body hinge member is extended therebeyond and terminated in a flange adapted to be riveted to the continuation of the curved flange.

ll hile it is preferable to form the corr gations in the body of the door by pressing them upward from the under side of the sheet and tapering their extremities so that they terminate within the margin of the door body with the upper corrugations terminating at the lower edge of the slope sheet, yet 11' desired, the corrugations may be pressed downward from the body oi the sheet, as shown in Fig. 4;, and in which case the upper edges may be tapered so as to tern'iinate beyond the lower edge of the slope sheet and short of the curved llange of the car body hinge member which will give additional strength to the bent portion or the door body normally lying under the slope sheet.

While the above description sets forth this invention as applied to a dump car oi the hopper type, yet this invent-ion is applicable equally as well to the type known as general service cars in which the doors are arranged in the flat bottom of the car for the purpose of discharging its load. In the application of this door hinge and supporting device to a. general service car it is not necessary to extend the car body hinge member continuously across the door opening as car body hinge members of the form described ap pliedeither to the center portion of the door opening or to each side 01 the door opening to engage the center or ends of the door hinge member will operate equally as well and this construction is also contemplated within the scope of this invention.

What I claim is:

1. In a railway car, the combination of a floor sheet, a discharge opening, a hinge member. secured to said floor sheet provided with an upwardly curved portion, a door having its upper portion curved downwardly which is concentric with and overlies the said upwardly curved portion of the hinge member, and a stop upon the extremity of the door hinge member to engage the floor sheet to limit the rotation of the door.

2. In a dump car having a hopper discharge openin a car body hinge member of channel t'orm, arranged under the slope sheet of the hopper and having a flange on one side wall. secured to the slope sheet and on'the other side wall a flange curved away and spaced apart from the slope sheet, said side walls having reinforcing bosses struck out therefrom, and a hopper door having integral hinge member extending continu ously across the top thereof curved downward and adapted to be supported upon and rotate over the curved flange of the other hinge member.

3. In a dump car having a plurality of hopper discharge openings arranged in series opposite to each other, and a plurality of hopper doors arranged with the backs of one series adjacent the backs of the other series, car body hinge members for said doors arranged under the hopper slope sheets having curved flanges, braces between the car body hinge members of the opposed series, and car door hinge members extending from the top of each door forming a curved flange coinciding with the curved flange of car body hinge members to support the doors in closed and open positions. v

4. In a dump car having a plurality of hopper discharge openings arranged in series opposite to each other, and a plurality of hopper doors arranged with the backs of 20 one series adjacent the backs of the other,

car body hinge members of channel form for said doors arranged under the hopper sheets having a flange on the upper side wall secured to the slope sheet and on the lower side wall a flange curved away and spaced apart from the slope sheet, braces in the form or" channels between the car body hinge members of the opposed series with the Webs of said channels secured to the opposed channel hinge members, and integral hinge members extending from the top of each door curved downwardly and adapted to be supported upon and rotate over the curved flange of the car body hinge member, said door hinge members terminating in upstanding flanges adapted to engage the under side of the slope sheets to limit the amount of rotation of the doors.

NICHOLAS o. THALI-IEIMER. 

